Here it is!

Whoa that is a close up! Sophie is my little photographer, always happy to take over the camera for me. It is a little blurry since the camera weighs about as much as she does and she has a hard time holding it steady. The back feels like it is around 2 inches long, but shorter than an inch at my neck line (not sure why I didn't have her take a picture of that?) I really like it and love the idea of not spending forever infront of the mirror. I can't wait for the sun to show it's face again so I can get some color back in my skin!

A new do!

For those of you that have known me for a long time, you will remember that my hair used to be pretty short. I had the typical a-line with my hair stacked in back. I really liked it. But after a few years of having it short I decided that I wanted to try to grow it out. During my pregnancy with Frankie it grew to be the longest length that it had been since I was around 5 or 6 years old. It was nice to be able to pull it back and curl it and all that, but soon after I had Frankie I just got sick of it. I started pulling it back everyday, or just getting out of the shower and immediately putting it into a bun with a headband, really I just NEVER did my hair. My hair changed after I had Frankie too. I lost a TON of it, and it didn't have this fabulous body that it used to have. Call me lazy, but I don't have the time (nor the desire:) to spend an hour in front of the mirror everyday fixing my hair, and that's about how long it took. So I took this girl's pictures the other day and she had the cutest hair ever. I started thinking about chopping it off and weighing the pros and cons of each. Short hair-you do have to style it most of the time (or I do anyway if I don't want to look like a homeless person), but it usually will stay cute for a couple days, and it does not take an hour. Long hair-it takes way too long, after an hour or so I look like a wet dog since all the body is gone, it is a pain to comb out, I could go on and on. So, I did it! I went to my friend Hillary's last night and she colored it for me and cut it way short! I LOVE IT!!! I woke up this morning and all I had to do was run my fingers through it a bit and voila! my hair was done hahahaha! I just hope the girls don't want to go and cut theirs too, it has gotten so pretty and long lately, and I don't mind doing their hair at all! I will post pictures as soon as someone is willing to take one for me. Where is Sophie when I need her...

Spring Boutique!

No surgery

My doctor bumped my surgery from today till April 24th. YAY! I get to have surgery for my birthday. Sweet. Just what I wanted. I am a little relieved, but a lot disappointed. I have been putting my problems off for long enough and I finally get my act together and get to the doctor and just when I think we will get all this figured out, she has to go and bump me to a later date. Sound a bit selfish?? I know my problems pale in comparison to what others might be going through, but I still can't help but be a little bit frustrated over the whole thing.

I am having a laparoscopy tomorrow. It is a surgical procedure where they go in your belly and look around and the point is to check for endometriosis. Anyone ever had one of those? I am sort of freaking out and being a huge baby about it. My periods are absolutely horrible and painful so my OB suggested that we do this since what I was describing sounded like endometriosis. Now I am wondering if it is even worth doing! They have to put me under and I am so scared. What if I don't wake up, or what if they find something awful. I know I am being a huge nerd since this type of surgery is really not a big deal, and doesn't last that long, but I can't help but be worried sick.

A great day!

I am sure that if you were to go "blog surfing" everyone in UT will have this same thing on their blog. What a perfect day!!! I have seriously been in the dumps lately with the crummy weather. I need sunlight and outdoor activities for the kids. We started off our day at Mark and Andrea's. They are so nice to let me have a key to their house and we go over there in the mornings for a change of scenery. I forgot my camera but they live on this really beautiful, quiet street just below mine. The kids got out the scooters, bikes, and of course, Mason's Cadillac Escalade. Can I just say watching him and the kids ride in that is the cutest thing ever!!! This thing even has a real radio! When I texted Andrea about the radio thing she says that when they get home Mason will go turn it on to "check his messages!" I about died laughing. They all take turns driving Frankie around in the car, so cute! I will have to get pictures today since I am thinking we are going to have another beautiful day. Back to the park....I picked up Bella from school, along with one of Sophie's friends and we headed to the park down the road. We also picked up a pizza and took some St. Patty's Day inspired cupcakes too. After the kids ate they took of for some play. I, of course, had my camera and took tons of pictures. Frankie's favorite thing to do was climb up and down the stairs. The holes in the steps were weirding her out and one time she sat there fro probably 5 minutes and stuck her fingers in and out of it. The favorite toy among the kids was that round thingy that they are all sitting on. Mom's would take turns pushing it and on my first turn I must have pushed it too hard because a little boy fell off and hit his head. Yep, I was done after that since I felt like a huge jerk. I let them do the hard work. So as you can see, we had a terrific day. I only hope that this weather is the beginning of Spring, for real this time. It seems like so many times in UT we get this beautiful streak of great weather, and then we get dumped on with 8 inches of snow! 

Project 52: week 7

Me and my girl at the park. Such a beautiful day, beautiful weather. I couldn't be happier! I have so many pictures to post from our outing today at the park but I have to go off to bed! This waking up every morning at 5:30 is creeping up on me. I love the quiet in the morning where I can drink some coffee and wake up with Greg, but man is it hard sometimes!

Definitely not the perfect picture, but classic Frankie. Whenever I go to grab my glasses she says "byyyyyyeeee-bye," gets her coat and heads for the door. If I hold her while I wear them she yanks them off the first chance she gets. Oh and thanks momma for taking the picture. You actually got us in the picture this time, not bad hahahahaha!

Sometimes people absolutely shudder when I tell them that I have a day care in my home. I get comments like "I don't know how you handle it," or "other people's kids bug me," (yep, I have had that one)! And those comments might ring true for some people. But when I get to look after this cute girl everyday, how could my job suck in the least?! We rarely have issues and if we do it is usually because someone is tired or isn't feeling well. Everyday I am in awe of how well they all get along. They all use their manners which I LOVE, they all put their dishes in the sink after each snack and meal (without being asked:), they clean up without complaining after each mess, I could go on and on. Andrea tells me all the time how lucky she feels to have her kids in my care, but I think I am the lucky one. I don't think I would be approaching my second year with these kids if they drove me nuts, no way! Ok, back to the picture. Whenever I pick up Ella from preschool she hardly talks since it is just her and I, Frankie and Soph, and she still gets a little shy when it is just us. Not today! They had their St. Patty's Day party at school and she got in my car and almost shouted "Jessica, I got gold!" She was so excited that we even called her mom so she could tell her the news. 

We got home and took some pictures of her and her sweet gold and she was very proud to show it off!

Ok. So my husband is many, many wonderful things. He is not, however, the man who brings me flowers or special gifts just because, or if I have had a terrible day, or whatever. Never has been, never will be. Poor me, huh hahahahah! So you can imagine my reaction when he brought me these yesterday afternoon...

Project 52: week 6

Oh my gosh I think I might just get this project post done (still 2 weeks behind though). As always, Sophie is my photographer since I keep forgetting to get my tripod out of the back of Greg's car, so the photos might be a bit blurry. I get everything set, and she clicks away. You can't really see it very well, but we are on the window sill behind the couch. This is one of Frankie's favorite places. We like to get up there and look outside to see what is going and she loves to watch the cars as they go zooming by. Still can't believe that she is 13 months! 

Oh, and how could I forget my sweet kitty. Did I mention that the vet confirmed my suspicions the other day? Yeah, he is totally a boy. At first Sophie was a little upset since she wanted a "girl" kitty, but she was quick to change his name to Gollum and adores him every bit as much as she did when he was a girl.....LOL!!!

Frankie's 1st birthday

Yeah, these pictures are really late. We ended up having Tina and Nick over, and my parents too, and we had some dinner and cake and ice cream. A friend of mine made this cute cake and it was so delish! I think Frankie preferred to play with the cake rather than eat it. Hopefully next year we all won't be seriously ill and Frankie can have a big party with lots of friends and family.

Ok. can I just say that my new computer is so freakin' awesome! I seriously cannot believe that I was ever trying to edit photos before life with my imac. I actually re-edited a session that I took forever ago because when I looked at the edited photos on my mac the colors were terribly off. I am embarassed :) Awhile ago I asked a friend about what I should spend my money on in order to get myself on the right track and she said two things: 1-a good camera, obviously and 2-which is the most important, a GREAT computer. No matter how awesome your camera is or how mad your skills are, they are absolutely pointless if you don't have a computer that will properly display colors and tones and blah blah blah. Um, lets just say that my last peice of junk did not treat me so well. I seriously love editing photos, I get a rush from it. I know I am a dork. But really though, when it doesn't take me 2+ minutes just to save a photo, that makes me happy! Oh, and it NEVER makes that horrible sound that my last one made. You know where it sounds like it might blow up in your face?! Oh, it was bad.
My project 52 has been neglected for the last 2 weeks. I have the photos but haven't had the time to load them yet since I was doing lots of other pictures. Oh well, they will be up sometime this weekend I suppose.
One more thing:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Matt Hicks!!!  Hope you have a GREAT day!!!

My photo blog is back up and running! I am having some problems getting my header to load though, and still need to add some stuff to the side. I tell you, if it's not one thing it's another! Oh well! Anyway, I do have some of my latest pics up and as I get the time throughout the day I will post lots more.

Uh huh, that's mine....

Oh my gosh I am so excited that I cannot even stand it! I am the proud new owner of an imac computer WOO HOO!!! It has this awesome 24 inch screen and the graphics display is out of this world!!! Let me back track....the other morning I went to turn on my computer like I always do and sit and check e-mails, blogs, and read the news, all while drinking my steaming hot cup of coffee. It is my morning routine, the day is not right without it. As I am sitting there reading a friend's blog, the monitor shuts of. Hmm....ok.....WTF?! So I move the mouse around thinking it is in power save mode or something and I get nothing. So I turn it off, and turn it back on. I am delighted to see that the monitor turned on and starts up like normal. So I begin where I left off, on Lex's blog. Again, it shuts off. I seriously almost put my hand through the screen, no joke. At this point I know there is no hope and I almost wanted to cry (most of you know my whole computer crashing drama so this is yet another thing to set me back). Then I started making phone calls and I am sorry but I am gonna say it, hate me if you want: everyone I spoke to was obviously from a different country so there was the whole language barrier thing and he didn't understand me, I didn't understand him, and so on. So this particular phone call lasted for 1 hour and 50 minutes. Bella was late for school and in the end I got nowhere. Then I called HP. They wanted to charge me $50 for a diagnostic test that may or not even work in the end so I told them to forget it. That is when I started shopping around. I knew I needed a new computer. Every time I tried to save an edited photo it would take an extra 2 minutes, sometimes more depending on what I did to the photo. And then there is whole fear of the stupid thing ever crashing again. I did my research and ended up with this sweet piece of machinery. The only hang up now is that my current photoshop is for a PC not a mac so I am waiting for my mac version to get here. Since I made the switch I had to send of this LOD (letter of destruction) stating that I will NOT be using my PC version of photoshop any longer, which means I cannot edit photos till I get the new one. So if you are waiting for photos plan on waiting at least a week longer, I know it sucks for both of us, but I seriously thank you for being patient. In a way I am kind of glad that this happened. I so needed a new computer for business purposes and this was the shove that I needed. Whew, k, I am done. I am gonna go and stare at the computer now :)

I seriously get tears in my eyes from laughing so hard every time I see this. My sister in law had this on her blog and I just had to post it on mine. Enjoy

Gettin' their yoga on!

Sophie has been doing yoga at least once a day for awhile. Today she thought she would get Mason and Ella in on it. When she asked Mason he said "Oh, oh, I love yoga, I get to do it at school all the time." They are so cute. So they did a 13 minute yoga workout and followed the directions really well, and they did the whole thing!
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Adorable watches

So these are seriously the world's cutest watches. I bought a few awhile back from another lady but they are old and broken and discolored in spots. My sister in law Brittani sent me this e-mail this morning about her friend Skye who is making these, at fabulous prices I might add. I love how they are chunky like a bracelet but functional as a watch. She is also doing a giveaway (I think I might try something like that with my photos, thanks for the idea Skye :) so be sure to check out her blog and enter your name in that. So freakin' cute and I am going to go nuts! You can see her blog here...you go girl!

WOO-HOO.....

....that was me letting out a big cheer due to the fact that I just made the last payment EVER on this P.O.S. lease of ours! You seriously do not have any idea how absolutely stoked I am to never have to make this $545 payment on this vehicle ever again!!! We first purchased this vehicle in 2005 since we had a Honda Sedan and were planning on moving ourselves to TX rather than paying way too much for someone else to do it. No, we did not need to go out and get the most expensive car we could find and about a year after making these horribly expensive payments we, meaning I (I think Greg will really miss this car), realized that we were idiots. It did serve it's purpose well. We made it to TX with all of our belongings in tow and had space to move around. It was a great car to have while Greg was in the ARMY and we moved a lot, but now not so much. So goodbye Nissan Pathfinder, I so will not miss you, or your crappy monthly payment :)

OH MY GOSH this girl is too freakin' cute! She kind of has the whole mullet look going on right now so even though her piggies look all together, within minutes all the hair at the crown of her head was sticking straight up. The back did stay in all day.
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Frankie had her well check up the other day. Let's just say it did not go so "well." Health wise she is doing great. She weighs almost 22 lbs. and is about 29 1/2 inches long. She is average on her height and weight, but has a huge head, something that her doctor likes to joke about every. single. time. we see him :) Now let's back up to when Bella was a baby at the doctor...She never fussed, she never cried until I wanted to cry with her, she was just happy to see Dr. Kramer, happy to be there (she did cry just a couple times after shots). Sophie same thing only even better. She never cried after shots, smiled at everyone, loved playing with Dr. Kramer and so on. Totally what you would want in a child after the doctor tells you he is going to give them a bagillion shots. Frankie. Not so much. If Dr. Kramer even looked at her she would scream. If he touched her, she screamed. Same thing with the nurse. And if that didn't already suck, I have never heard her cry like I did when she got her 4 shots, oh, and her finger pricked too, so I thought "what the hell" and cried right along with her. Oh yeah, and did I mention that I had Sophie, Mason and Ella with me too (but secretly that was ok since they are all the world's greatest kids, it was just a tiny bit cramped in the exam room). The hardest part of it all is that Dr. Kramer is german and has a very strong accent and talks very quiet which makes me crazy, so all the while Frankie is crying, he is telling me all this stuff, and I just sort of nod and act like I am totally getting what he is saying...NOT! Oh well. I guess I should be happy that we are some of the few who have health insurance right now and can take our kids to the doctor. I just do not look forward to the next visit at all! A few things about Frankie right now...
~says mamma, daddy, bella, up, down, bath, more, nose, hmmmm I know there are more...
~points out all of her body parts, nose being her favorite one
~can wear piggy tails :)
~she can finally get up by herself without having to use something to pull on
~she can run (or walk really, really fast), but her legs get going to fast and she does a face plant
~climbs up on everything, makes me crazy!
~stands up in her highchair, which just pisses me off (yes I have a highchair with a belt but somehow she manages to get her scrawney little but out of it)
~signs quite a few things like all done, more, thank you...
~fully understands the word "no" and whenever she hears it gets this really pathetic little face and an even more pathetic little whine, soooo hard for me to not laugh at this one!
Guess that is it for now! I am really surprised that my girls are not up yet, or that Mason and Ella are not here either, but totally enjoying the quiet! Have a great day!